Housecleaning: I'm Hibernating This Winter

I've decided to take a break.  Perhaps not a huge break, depending on what Zaidi does, but if he does what I think he will do, which is basically do what Sabean would have done, for the most part, making smaller impact deals, like last winter, in order to make the team competitive for 2019, I'm not going to wade into the smaller stuff like I usually do.  If a big signing happens, or anything I think significant for the long term, I'll, of course, will wade in.  Plus, I'll probably re-purpose my business plan and address it to Zaidi instead, but will retroactively date it for the date of his press conference. 

But the plan is to be relatively quiet this off-season, in spite of the excitement I feel about Zaidi.

Dissecting LA Time's Zaidi Profile

As I mentioned in my post about the hiring of Farhan Zaidi, the LA Times biographical article by Andy McCullough is an essential read for understanding Zaidi, and what he might bring to the Giants.  I thought I would go further and pull out what I think are key bits of info that I think is applicable to him being the Giants leader.

Oh Henry! Farhan Zaidi is the Giants New President of Baseball Operations

As reported first by the great Hank Schulman, Farhan Zaidi is the Giants new President of Baseball Operations, the NextGen leader that Baer said that the Giants were searching slowly for.

Reportage:

• Schulman
• Baggarly
• Kawakami
• Pavlovic
• Crowley

Baer's released statement (direct from the e-mail I got):

“We set out to find one of the best minds in baseball and Farhan's many accomplishments and expertise exceeded our expectations.  Farhan is widely viewed as one of the top executives in our industry and we are thrilled to have him lead the next chapter of Giants Baseball.”

Zaidi's released statement (direct from the e-mail I got):

“I am delighted to return to the Bay Area and to join one of the most storied franchises in the game.  I have watched the Giants from afar and I have great respect for the organization's culture and many accomplishments. I am excited about this new opportunity and I'm looking forward to getting right to work.”

Also, Baggarly's piece discussed possible implications and questions he will face, as did this Pavlovic article.

Hey Zaidi! My Giants Business Plan

This provides easy access to my Giants business plan and captures what I've been discovering and saying are the best ways to run a baseball team for competitive advantage and, in particular, to be more successful in the playoffs, and particularly, ways that has made winning the World Series more likely.  The Giants have followed a good portion of this plan, though not all.  I'm hopeful that Zaidi will not only stay the course, but also will do more to enhance the team's opportunities, just like how the addition of John Barr improved the Giants.

As Zaidi has said in interviews, one needs to be aware of 51%/49% decisions and to understand that just because the results don't go your way, you want to stay the course of what your evidence and findings lead you, which is much like I've been trying to emphasize in my blog over the years, taking the big picture view (or as some like to call it, "trusting the process") and with this business plan. 

As much as the Giants have been losing in the past few years (yes, two and a HALF years), they have mostly stayed the course with their process of building up pitching and defense (not as much on the latter, to be frank, though, else they would have brought up Duggar sooner).  And Zaidi, with his comment about that quality elite defense is the key to low-scoring games (which implies having a great rotation and bullpen combination on the Giants going forward), appears to be on board with this process, only with his new twists that he will bring to the team.

[Note:  I've re-written the original starting post to be addressed to Farhan Zaidi, new President of Baseball Operations of the San Francisco Giants, but the original series of links were to Bill Neukom, soon after he was hired. I think that's my main thing I'll be working on during my break, is to re-examine all my prior posts, start with them as a base, re-write them giving my admittedly cursory knowledge of what Zaidi has said in his Giants interviews so far.  Like Maria Kondo advocates, it "sparks joy" for me to think about doing this.  I might do a few draft articles as well.  

I'm getting this out now, since I had started it before my decision to take a break, but probably won't start updating the rest until next year, as I research what else I can update for each chapter of my business plan.  I backdated it to the day of his press conference, hence it's calendar placement, but the rest will be published in real time.  I'll update the links below to the new chapters, as each gets published, so this post will change links over time, and perhaps other content, as noted below.]